It's the calm before the storm for Eddie Pasquale, Jordan Szwarz and Cody Sol.

In the days leading up to Friday's NHL draft, the three Saginaw Spirit players are feeling mostly at ease. But that will change quickly when the flurry of the 30-team, 210-pick draft starts at 7 p.m. and continues into Saturday.

"Right now I'm pretty calm," Sol said Tuesday. "But I think Saturday or Friday night I'll be feeling the nerves."

Of the nine draft-eligible Spirit players, Pasquale, Szwarz and Sol are the most likely to be picked. Players become draft-eligible when they turn 18.

Pasquale, the Spirit's starting goaltender, is the highest-rated of the players, projected by some as a first-rounder. Szwarz, a right-winger, and Sol, a defenseman, are also listed among the top 200 prospects on NHL.com.

Yet the players say they're still in the dark as to when they might hear their names called. Pasquale said he tries to stay away from the often-misleading mock drafts.
"I try to stay out of that stuff," Pasquale said. "It just kinda gets your hopes up a little bit."

But just because the players are drafted doesn't mean they're off to the NHL just yet. Because of an agreement between the Canadian Hockey League and the NHL, any drafted player not assigned to an NHL club for the 2009-10 season must be returned to junior hockey, and not a minor league like the AHL or ECHL. All three Spirit players picked in the 2008 draft -- Nick Crawford, Adam Comrie and T.J. Brodie -- were back in a Spirit uniform for the 2008-09 season.

If drafted, the players will attend training camp for the NHL in September, but will more than likely head back to Saginaw soon after. The Spirit's season begins Friday, September 18.

"I know I'm going to be with the Spirit next year," Szwarz said.

That's good for the Spirit, since all three players were significant contributors in the 2008-09 season. Pasquale, a goalie, had a 3.02 goals-against average and a .911 save percentage during the 2008-09 regular season. Szwarz scored 17 goals and tallied 34 assists, while Sol appeared in 66 games as a defenseman.

All three players prepared for the draft by attending the NHL draft combine in Toronto, a five-day ordeal consisting of interviews with both on-ice and off-ice workouts. Representatives from all 30 teams were present to sift through potential prospects.

In the days leading up to the combine, Spirit players relied on some recent draftees to provide insight. Sol said Comrie clued him in to potential interview questions like "If your roommate misses team curfew, would you report him to the coaching staff?"

"They help you out with the trick questions they throw at you," Sol said.

Yet the combine was hardly the first time NHL scouts sized up the Spirit players. Half of the players selected in the 2008 draft spent time in the CHL, including 20 of the first 30 picks. Spirit part-owner Craig Goslin said NHL scouts are a common occurrence at Spirit games.

But that doesn't mean they are giving up any information.

"They really don't tip their hands very much," Goslin said. "We're just hearing very good things about all three of them."